RedBone

by Styles, T.

  “I’ll try.”

  Before Coconut could respond, Sherry knocked on the door. “Come in, Ma.” She sighed.

  “Sorry to bother you again, but your company is here. In walked Park and Jake. In this instance Farah was right, because they both wanted to talk to the girls because of their lighter skin. When Sherry left, Park hugged Farah and gripped her ass while Coconut jumped on top of Jake and kissed him passionately on the mouth.

  “I’m fucking the shit out of you tonight,” Jake said, going under Coconut’s dress and sticking his finger in her tight pussy. Coconut cooed and kissed him harder. After Farah’s kiss was over, she and her boyfriend stood awkwardly in the room, looking at Coconut and Jake go at it. Farah started tugging on the bottom of the dress she wore due to nervousness. She knew at some point she would have to fuck Park if she wanted to keep him. She saw the way he looked at Coconut’s body, and it hurt her feelings. As much as she loved her friend, she wasn’t sure if she could trust her around him.

  After the longest kiss Farah had ever witnessed, Coconut said, “Me and Jake gonna see if we can get some weed and E pills. Y’all can stay in my room. If y’all fool around do it on top of my sheets. I don’t want no cum on my bed.” Farah frowned. “When we come back we gonna all roll to the party together.”

  When she and Jake left, Farah walked to Coconut’s mirror and swung her hair back and forth the way she saw her friend do it. Park watched her from the bed, enjoying the view. “I ain’t know your ass was that fat,” Park said. “You gonna make me come lick that mothafucka in a minute.”

  Farah turned around, leaned up against the dresser, and raised her skirt. “Is that so?”

  “Yep ... So when you gonna let me hit?”

  He stepped up to the dresser and she sauntered away from him. To play off his embarrassment he grabbed one of Coconut’s perfume bottles and began sniffing the tops. “If you worrying about me hurting you when we have sex, don’t. I’ma be easy.”

  Farah heard his voice but couldn’t make out the words. All she was thinking about was that if he sprayed the perfume, she might end up in the hospital. In order to keep her illness in check, she had to stay away from everything young women loved. From makeup to scented soaps; if it smelled pretty, she avoided it at all costs. “Come over here,” Farah ordered. “Put Coconut’s stuff down.”

  “If I come over there, you gonna make it worth my while?” He held on to the perfume bottle, as if he were using it as a weapon. She didn’t tell anybody about her condition, for fear they would use it against her. But if he didn’t set the bottle down, she had every intention of tackling him. “I ain’t coming over there for nothing.”

  “It’ll be worth your while ...” she said, her heart rate increasing. He still hadn’t placed the bottle on the dresser. Finally, after a few more seconds, he set it down and walked in her direction. “Come on, Park.”

  “You not fucking with my head, are you?”

  “No, boy,” she said in a honeyed voice.

  Standing in front of her, he dropped his jeans and boxers. His forwardness scared her because she hoped her first time would be subtler. “I want you to suck it first.” She swallowed her nervousness. “And I want you to stick your finger in my ass. I ain’t gay or nothing. I just like it like that.” Park went from seduction to instruction, as he told her what he wanted. He pressed his hard dick against her stiff lips but they wouldn’t separate. His clear pre-cum oozed from the tip. “Open your mouth, Farah.” He looked down at her and wished she stuck her finger in his asshole, and opened her mouth. The moment she did, Sherry walked into the room and Farah pushed Park back so hard he fell to the floor before rustling to pull up his pants. Sherry slammed the door.

  Farah wiped her soiled finger on Coconut’s bed and said, “Mrs. Sherry ... I ... I ...”

  “I’m sorry, Farah. I didn’t know you kids were busy,” she said from the outside of the room. “Your sister and brother are here to see you. They say it’s important.”

  Overcome with embarrassment, Farah pulled herself together and said, “Park, I’ll see you later.” Running toward the door, she tripped over one of Coconut’s shoes. “I gotta go.”

  Once out of the room she passed Sherry, who avoided eye contact with her, as she sat on the living room sofa. When she opened the front door, she saw Shadow and Mia standing in the hallway. The looks on their faces scared her and she knew right away something was wrong. Once the door closed Farah asked, “Is Grandma okay?”

  “She good, but we gotta go talk in the car,” Mia said.

  “Yeah ... This a family matter not to be discussed in the hallway,” Shadow added.

  When she got to the car, she saw Chloe sitting in the back seat, crying her eyes out. Brownie was in the driver’s seat, and since Mia and Shadow got in the back with Chloe, she was forced to sit in the front with her mother. “Farah ... tonight is gonna be the night you prove yourself to me, and the rest of the family.” She pointed a finger in her face. “I heard about you not fighting at school, and letting people jump in your face when they talk about your illness,” she said in a spiteful voice. “One time I even heard you cried.” Farah looked at Shadow, who held his head down. She knew the incident well. It happened a month earlier and she confided in her brother. Now she was thinking it was a big mistake. “But there comes a time in your life when you gotta step up. And tonight is that night. No more crying, no more hiding, and no more being weak. This is it, Farah.

  “Now, your baby sister was raped an hour ago.”

  Farah gasped and said, “By who?”

  “Theo.”

  Farah couldn’t wrap her mind around what she was saying. She knew Theo and Chloe were seeing each other, despite what they did to him behind the school, but she vowed to keep their secret. Chloe always seemed to want the men she had. It bothered her at first because she and Theo were so close at one point, and she wondered why he didn’t choose her. But life and new friends got in the way and after a while, she didn’t care. Besides, when she wrote her story she saw a dark-skinned, strong man, and Theo was neither. Farah certainly didn’t think he would ever hurt her sister.

  “Now we gotta finish what we started two years ago with him.” Farah’s heart rate increased, knowing something terrible was coming. “We don’t play that shit when it comes to our family, and you know it.” Brownie looked at her kids and continued, “So, I want y’all to go into his house, and stab his ass to death.” She reached in a brown paper bag and handed them knives. When Farah didn’t take hers, Brownie frowned. “Fuck is wrong with you?”

  Farah looked at the knife and said, “I don’t wanna do this.”

  “What you mean you don’t wanna do this? I just told you that little fucker raped your baby sister.” Farah turned around and looked at Chloe, who looked out of the window. “Even she putting in work and you telling me you afraid?”

  Farah took the knife. She had done everything she could to make Brownie love her, and to get attention. From serving her breakfast in bed, which she’d always ungratefully eat without so much as a thank you, to swallowing chemicals, knowing she would end up in the hospital. In the end the only thing Brownie wanted to see was bloodshed. “Farah. I need you to toughen up.”

  “But I’m not like y’all.” She looked at all of them. “I don’t like hurting people.”

  Everyone in the car sighed, right before Brownie grabbed the knife out of Farah’s hand and jabbed it into the vinyl seat between her legs. Farah pushed back into the seat as Brownie moved the knife toward her vagina slowly. “You ain’t no better than us, RedBone. You better recognize that shit.” She huffed. “Now are you with us or not?”

  Looking at her siblings, and not wanting to let them down, she said, “Yes, Mamma.”

  Brownie removed the knife from the vinyl seat, and handed it back to her with the blade in her direction. “Good.”

  “How we gonna get in?” Shadow asked, eager as always to put in work.

  “After he raped her, he would
n’t let her leave. But she convinced him she wouldn’t tell anybody. For two hours he begged her not to say nothing. Eventually the little bastard let her go, after Chloe said she’d be back with some food, so the door should be open.” Brownie looked at her watch. “He’ll be expecting her back in the next fifteen minutes. So we gotta move now.”

  Farah sat in her seat quietly. She belonged to a family of savages, and it bothered her terribly. She knew they often did things in secrecy, in the middle of the night without her. Most times they would creep out, and not so much as nudge her. She’d reasoned that before long the moment would come when she would be forced to participate. Now that the moment arrived, she realized she wasn’t ready.

  When they made it to Dinette’s apartment building, Brownie and the children crept slowly up the stairs. “Y’all go in, and I’ll come in about fifteen minutes,” Brownie ordered.

  Chloe turned the knob knowing it would open and walked into the apartment. Her siblings followed. When Chloe walked up to a door in the hallway she whispered, “It’s this one right here.”

  Mia was the first to open the door. The light from the television illuminated the room, revealing someone sleeping under a thick, dark blanket. Shadow, Chloe, and Mia all walked into the bedroom and surrounded the bed. Looking at one another, smiles dressed their faces as one by one they took turns stabbing at the mound. When a woman’s voice yelled out in pain, Farah was shocked to see that it was Dinette instead of Theo under the covers. She knew right away that they lied to get her to participate in the crime. Farah dropped the knife and was preparing to run out of the room when she bumped into her mother. Brownie smiled slyly, and walked into the room to taunt the woman she’d hated for so long.

  Years would pass before Farah would learn the real events leading up to that night. Theo was staying at a friend’s house, and Tommy had left her last year. If they were going to do anything, it had to be tonight. Herbert, the project’s maintenance man, gave Brownie a key to Dinette’s apartment for fifty bucks to buy some dope. It was easier than Brownie could’ve ever imagined. After all those years, Brownie never got over her suspicions that she fucked Ashur. Loving the color of blood, she finally sought revenge. Farah knew the moment she left that room that life would never be the same for her, and she was right.

  Chapter 11

  Present Day Mooney s House

  Mooney sat in the window and stared at the empty field. She wondered where everyone was, because there was usually activity in front of the building at all times. When there was a knock at the door she rubbed her elbow, stood up, and opened it wide. Melinda and Cutie Tudy were standing outside with attitudes on their faces. Cutie had her hands crossed over her chest, in typical brat fashion, and her ghetto foster mother was chewing gum like a cow.

  “You mind watching her, Mooney?” Melinda asked between a few gum pops. She was a hustler’s dream. She had a flat stomach, phat ass, and a mouth wetter than the Nile. She was dipped in diamonds and platinum and her face was massaged a little too heavily with red blush. “She ain’t allowed to be by herself for a while, since she don’t know how to act.” She looked down at Cutie and tugged her ear.

  “Ow, Ma!” Cutie responded, hitting her hand. “Stop that shit!”

  “Shut the fuck up!” she yelled down at her. “Anyway—she smiled faker than a Gucci purse spelled with a C—“she fought that little black bitch upstairs and now they can’t be together because they social workers involved.” Melinda started wrestling through her Louis Vuitton purse as she continued to talk. “These kids trying to get my checks stopped ... I swear to God.” Removing a five dollar bill from her purse she said, “Here, use this if she needs something to eat.”

  Mooney looked at the short money and said, “Naw ... you can keep that. I have stuff to make sandwiches, and if she don’t want that, I’ll order a pizza.” Melinda stuffed the bill back in her purse so fast she almost punched a hole in the bottom.

  “Ma, you said I could watch myself,” Cutie whined. “I wanted to go outside and play with my friends. Plus my boyfriend gonna be outside today.”

  “Until they take that jealous bitch out of my house, and her twin, I gotta keep y’all separated. You heard them peoples. I know how you are when you go out, Cutie. You be out there running your mouth nonstop, and then you get thirsty and wanna come in the house to drink up my wine coolers.” She continued with her hands on her hips, “That girl and her sister are up there now, so I don’t need you fucking with them.”

  “But why I gotta be the one to leave my house?”

  ’Cause you told me last night you liked Mooney.”

  “Ma! I didn’t say that shit!” Cutie was so embarrassed she wanted to faint.

  “Yes, you did, now go on in there.” She pushed her inside. “And when I get some money from my sugar daddy, I’ll come back and get you.”

  Cutie’s eyes lit up. “Can you tell sugar daddy to buy me a new phone like he promised?”

  “Only if you good.” Melinda switched away without another word.

  Cutie stomped toward the couch and Mooney closed and locked the door. The moment she sat down she dug in her coat pocket and pulled out her phone. Mooney quietly ambled toward the recliner by the window. Although Mooney was irritated, this was the most excitement she had in a long time. As she looked outside, she could feel Cutie’s eyes rolling over her, but she didn’t acknowledge her existence. Yesterday she spent two hours telling her part of a story she knew she had to hear the conclusion to ... even though it was a long ways coming.

  After about thirty minutes of silence, Cutie said, “Why you ain’t got no TV in here? Dang! It’s boring as shit in your house.”

  Mooney looked at Little Miss Rudeness and said, “Hello to you too.”

  Cutie rolled her eyes. “I’m serious. You done got me in trouble, and now I gotta come over here. I was fine when I was watching myself.”

  Mooney corrected her. “You got your own self in trouble by lying on your sister.” She looked out the window. “Hopefully one day you’ll learn to tell the truth.”

  Cutie sighed. “That bitch is not my sister!” she said in a sassy tone. “I mean, the least you could do is tell me the rest of the story. Dang!”

  “Is that your way of asking me to finish?” Cutie ignored her and played with her phone. “Before I do that, tell me what happened when you went home last night. With your foster sister.”

  “What you think happened? She stayed out of my fucking way.”

  “You didn’t apologize?”

  “For fucking what?” she asked with her jaw hung. “It ain’t like she dead. We just performed Stomp on that ass.”

  Mooney lit a cigarette and said, “Let’s make a deal: if you like the next part of the story, you have to apologize to her tonight. Cool?”

  Cutie smirked and for the sake of boredom said, “Yeah ... okay.”

  Mooney sat back in her seat and said, “Farah went through many stages before she changed into something so horrible, at first it was unbelievable. She had violent people in her life she looked to for love and acceptance, so it was inevitable the way things turned out.”

  “What about that boyfriend Farah wanted? The one who was gonna be real strong and love her forever. I think you called him Superman! I mean, I know she had that other boy Park ... but I ain’t like him.”

  Mooney was secretly pleased the girl knew their names, because it meant she was paying attention. “If you hear nothing else I say, hear this ... you will always attract a mate who personifies who you are. If you’re a gold-digger you gonna get a drug dealer who thinks he can buy you. If you hate yourself, you gonna get a nigga who will kick your ass every day and six times on Monday. And if you violent, you’re gonna attract a monster. It will always be true. All the time. No exceptions.”

  Chapter 12

  Seven Years Later

  “I come from a family of murderers.”

  —Farah

  “Girl, if I show up dead tomorrow, Raping Randy did tha
t shit!” Farah yelled into her cell phone as she maneuvered down an icy DC street in the silver Benz Randy bought her last year. The snowstorm was unmerciful and the window wipers did little to clear her view. Her eyes moved rapidly between the rearview mirror and the road ahead, as she struggled to get away from her crazed ex-boyfriend. “Oh, my God! He’s about to hit me again!”

  Clank. Clank!

  Randy’s black Escalade hit the back of her Benz twice, causing the bumper to droop a little. Farah’s car fishtailed but she was able to regain control. “I don’t wanna die, Coconut!” He showed no signs of letting up anytime soon and it was obvious that he either wanted her dead or at a massive standstill. When he was close enough, he hit her again and the bumper hung off a little more. “I’m scared.” She wiped the snot and tears off of her face with the back of her hand. “He’s gonna finally do it! I shoulda left his ass alone when I had the chance!”

  “I thought you did! You know how crazy Randy is! That nigga not all together, Farah!” Coconut screamed into the phone. She wasn’t saying the right shit in Farah’s opinion. She needed encouragement and Coconut failed miserably. “And what happened to the restraining order you put on him?”

  “I don’t know, bitch! Maybe he ate it!” Farah said sarcastically. “I just wish he’d leave me alone! I haven’t fucked him in, like, six months,” she lied. Although she told her best friend one story, she knew the truth was nowhere near it. When she was with Randy life was good, as long as he wasn’t roughing her up in the bedroom. It was because of that reason that she dumped him two years ago.

  Before she ever dated Randy, Farah was starting to believe all her dreams were coming true. Coconut was officially her best friend and she was well liked in school. The only things missing in her life were the fact that the disease she hosted was still incapacitating at times, and she didn’t have in her life the strong, dark-skinned man who reminded her of Ashur. So when Randy approached her at the club on her eighteenth birthday, while she was celebrating with her friends, she couldn’t believe her luck. He was rich, powerful, and dark chocolate, all the things she thought she wanted. Before long Randy took her virginity, gave her everything she wanted in life, and then, when the time was right, showed her his darker side in the bedroom. Farah quickly realized she couldn’t handle it.